Zecharias Zelalem
THREAD: Woeful portrayal of events in the Netherlands by Sky News.
On February 17th, riots broke out at an Eritrean government sponsored event in 🇳🇱 , when anti government Eritrean activists went to halt the event. Scuffles turned into fights and then vehicles were torched.
Sky News portrayed the violence as being between "rival" Eritrean factions. Others used wording that almost suggested that it was street gang violence. Words matter. Will try to render things clear here.
Video: Sky News.
Zecharias Zelalem
Among the methods the Eritrean government has used to fund its oppression, annual festivals held across Europe and North America. Often portrayed as cultural events with music, sports and dancing, the foreign currency raked in from the Eritrean diaspora community has helped sustained the dictatorship at home. From its embassies and community representatives, the Eritrean government has for years been harassing its citizens even after they flee to safety.
Zecharias Zelalem
Eritrea remains among the world's leading refugee producing countries, astonishing when you take their comparatively small population.
Eritrean migrants flee via some of the most dangerous refugee corridors in the world, including Houthi held Yemen, the Egypt Sinai, and Libya. They have been victims of human traffickers along all those routes and thousands have died trying to reach the Middle East or Europe.
This UNHCR data is almost a decade old, but Eritrea is still high in the rankings.
Zecharias Zelalem
Eritrea is an East African country of ~ 6M. A 30 year war saw Eritrea win its independence from Ethiopia by 1991. Unfortunately, the then successful rebel commander has ruled since 1991 as the country's unofficial president for life. Under President Isaias Afewerki, the country has no freedoms, no private sector, and unending military conscription has seen 100s of 1000s of young Eritreans flee the country since 2002. It is consistently ranked bottom next to North Korea in world freedom indexes.
Zecharias Zelalem
As someone of Eritrean descent, and someone who met a large section of his Eritrean family after they fled military conscription, I know too well of the impact on Eritrean families, split across continents with reunification a pipe dream.
Listen to 🇪🇷 migrants, hear their needs, aspirations. You'll find they aren't too different from you. It's the "send them back to Africa" xenophobic clique that are not like the rest of us.
Closing with Eritrean music.
Cheers!
-ZZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=eyVhR4GyDikfUv0M&v=J1ty9FzXkI8&feature=youtu.be
Zecharias Zelalem
Now here is a western journalist who has a grasp of what's going on. The Eritrean ambassador to Netherlands, where the latest clashes broke out, appeared on Dutch TV channel Nieuwsuur where he slammed the anti government "hooligans" for burning cars and attacking the festival. The journalist however, was insistent in holding the official accountable & demanding his government own up to its role in the violence.
The Ambassador kept dodging questions. The exchanges are quite revelatory.
Zecharias Zelalem
Now while this thread focuses on a country in the Horn of Africa, I think everyone living in Europe and North America should take note, because this is violence that you may yet see in your own communities.
It is very easy for the far right to call for deportations. Let's be frank though, if Vladimir Putin supporters decided to hold a festival fundraiser in Seattle...you can bet everything that clashes far worse than what we're seeing here would break out.
As such, the racism is uncalled for.
Zecharias Zelalem
This BBC video coverage of the Tel Aviv violence, includes an interview of mine where I tried to explain the root causes of the violence, and why we have seen such an escalation.
It is not a "battle between gangs." Again, the violence never existed in a vacuum.
This is what an Eritrean member of Brigade Nhamedu told me about their methods: "if you were forced into exile by a government, and nearly died trying to get out, how would you react to find that same regime partying in your new home?"
Zecharias Zelalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had no grasp of what was going on, announced that he had a new plan to deport "all African migrants that he described as 'illegal infiltrators.'"
The October 7th attacks put those plans on hold.
Zecharias Zelalem
The worst violence between Eritrean anti government and pro government supporters, took place in Tel Aviv last September. It paralyzed the city. Clad in blue here are opposition activists. The pro government supporters are in red.
At these clashes, Israeli police used live ammunition against protesters in the country for the first time since the second Intifada.
Israel is home to survivors of the Egyptian Sinai trafficker/organ trade routes that may have killed thousands of Eritreans.
Zecharias Zelalem
The violence is abhorrent. But it was inevitable. The violence didn't exist in a vacuum, all the conditions and suffering so many were put through birthed it.
The opposition say Eritrean government officials who are responsible for the calamity, should not be able to collect money from communities abroad. And some European governments have agreed and decided to revoke permits for regime festivals.
The German city of Stuttgart did so after violence last year.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-dozens-injured-in-unrest-at-eritrean-event/a-66837449
Zecharias Zelalem
Eritrean immigrant communities in the west are composed of tens of thousands, who cope with the trauma of having witnessed brutality of human traffickers, as well as physical and sexual violence. Many were victims of the organ trade, and in a community where mental health awareness isn't high, survivors spend years struggling to move on. Others escaped torture, hardships, oppression or military camps at home.
Zecharias Zelalem
So...why have things suddenly become so violent, when for decades Eritrean politican activism abroad was largely peaceful?
While iron fisted rule isn't really a new thing, Eritrea's deciding to intervene in Ethiopia's civil war in 2020, a war where tens of thousands of Eritreans are believed to have been killed, may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Most Eritreans feel it wasn't their war & the deaths of scores of conscripts may have tipped the vase over.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/eritrea-troops-still-ethiopian-soil-us-2023-01-28/
Zecharias Zelalem
Brigade Nhamedu's open use of violence to end these festivals is a frightening new phenomenon that few in western media, let alone western society understand.
This has led to some journalists, with zero understanding of what's going on thinking that these were everything from tribal clashes, to gang warfare.
Right wing European political factions have sounded the alarms, saying "we don't need them bringing their 3rd world problems here," and so on and so forth.
Zecharias Zelalem
The opposition activists established a global collective they call "Brigade Nhamedu." They typically wear blue shirts with the insignia below. In some cases, the Eritrean regime organizes supporter squads who also use violence, resulting in the clashes between the two.
Zecharias Zelalem
The UK, Netherlands, Canada, USA, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Israel and many other countries where Eritrean government officials held large scale fundraising festivals...all saw riot induced cancellations over the course of 2022-23. Here's coverage of one such incident in Germany.
Zecharias Zelalem
In late 2022, Eritrean anti government activists in Europe and North America began mobilizing to end the fundraising campaigns. While protests and calls for the release of political prisoners are nothing uncommon in the Eritrean democratic circle, since 2022, the escalation of tactics, which include and are not limited to picketing and even violence, have been unprecedented.
Eritrean regime events have been the scene of violence and chaos, leading to injuries, arrests and cancellations.
Zecharias Zelalem
In 2013, the Canadian government ordered an Eritrean diplomat out of the country, after complaints from Eritrean Canadians that he was harassing and threatening Eritreans in Canada who didn't deliver a 2% income tax to authorities in Eritrea. Eritreans who refuse to pay have had property confiscated back home. The diplomats have long instilled fear in Eritrean communities across the western world, and thrive in a culture of silence and fear.
Zecharias Zelalem
If you'd like to get a grasp of the horrors endured by Eritrean migrants en route to Israel, this 2013 hour long documentary produced by Eritrean journalist, migrant advocate and all round superhero larger than life figure Meron Estifanos will more than open your eyes (Meron goes as far as traveling to the trafficking danger zones). Trigger warning, the film isn't an easy watch.
And we are lucky, because Meron is actually on Mastodon! Follow her here: @Meron
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